An apology, but no regrets and no detailed explanation on what set him off.

That's where French soccer star Zinedine Zidane left things Wednesday during widely broadcast television interviews that attempted to decipher his ugly head-butting of an Italian opponent during the World Cup final.

Zidane did say he was spurred by cruel insults to his mother and sister. But the exact exchange between France's captain and Marco Materazzi remains a mystery. Zidane never was specific about what enraged him. So, for the moment, the words stay between them.

"I would rather have taken a punch in the jaw than have heard that," he told the Canal-Plus television network in Paris, stressing that Materazzi's language was "very harsh" and that he uttered the insults several times.

In his first comments since Sunday's match, Zidane repeatedly apologized to fans -- especially to children -- but he said he didn't regret the outburst that marked the end of his illustrious 18-year professional career.

"I tell myself that if things happened this way, it's because somewhere up there it was decided that way," the 34-year-old midfielder said in an interview on TF1 television. "And I don't regret anything that happened, I accept it."

Despite the head-butt, Zidane was awarded the Golden Ball award for best player at the World Cup -- though FIFA president Sepp Blatter has suggested Zidane could be stripped of the honor.

"The winner of the award is not decided by FIFA but by an international commission of journalists," Blatter told the Italian newspaper La Repubblica. "That said, FIFA's executive committee has the right, and the duty, to intervene when faced with behavior contrary to the ethics of the sport."

ITALY'S COACH RESIGNS: Marcello Lippi resigned Wednesday, after guiding the Azzurri to their fourth World Cup title, won 5-3 on penalty kicks after the teams played to a 1-1 tie in regulation.

Despite widespread calls for him to stay, Lippi suggested weeks ago that he would resign. He said he feels he and his son, Davide, were attacked personally in the corruption scandal that has tainted Italian soccer.

"At the end of an extraordinary professional and human experience, experienced as the head of an exceptional group of players ... I believe my role is over as the guide of the Italian national team," Lippi said in a statement.

Although he is not under investigation, Lippi was questioned by prosecutors before the World Cup about alleged pressure he received to select certain players for Italy's national team. Davide Lippi is under investigation for his work at player agency GEA World.

Italian soccer federation chief Guido Rossi said Lippi had told him early in the World Cup campaign that he would resign and take six months off regardless of his team's performance.

Italy's World Cup victory makes it even more urgent to clean up soccer at home and punish the teams involved in a match-fixing scandal, the Italian soccer federation chief said Wednesday, ruling out any amnesty.

Rossi, a senator called in to lead the federation in the wake of the scandal, also ruled out any reduced penalties for top Serie A clubs facing possible relegation to lower divisions.

"An amnesty would be absolutely the wrong way to go about re-establishing a clean sport, which the national team has proved can exist," Rossi told a parliamentary committee investigating the biggest soccer scandal in Italian history.